³ Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it:

⁴⁹ Then said I, Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, Isn't he a speaker of parables?

² Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel;

³ who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

⁶ You, son of man, don't be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: don't be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

³ He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.

² Hear, heavens, And listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me.

² I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

¹ Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, who take counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

⁹ For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh;

⁸ But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don't be you rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen on it.

⁵¹ "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

¹⁰ He said, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables; that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'

¹² They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away.

¹³ The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face of it is from the north.

¹³ Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.

⁹ As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this [city] is the caldron; but you shall be brought forth out of the midst of it.

¹¹ This [city] shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of it; I will judge you in the border of Israel;

² Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don't see, who have ears to hear, and don't hear; for they are a rebellious house.

²⁵ For I am Yahweh; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed; it shall be no more deferred: for in your days, rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform it, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹² Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took the king of it, and the princes of it, and brought them to him to Babylon:

² and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs.

³ She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

⁴ The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁵ Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion.

⁶ He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

⁷ He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness of it, because of the noise of his roaring.

⁸ Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

⁹ They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰ Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹ It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches.

¹² But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them.

¹³ Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴ Fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

⁴ In that day they will take up a parable against you, And lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, 'We are utterly ruined! My people's possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"

¹⁰ But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] himself fought against them.